Pubdate: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC) Copyright: 2005 Evening Post Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.charleston.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567 Author: Nadine Parks, Of The Post And Courier Staff CITY SEEKS ANTI-DRUG FUNDING N. CHARLESTON GRANT TO EXPIRE NEXT YEAR Tony Grasso has witnessed the aftermaths of six murders, a beating and two stabbings in his Russeldale community off Rivers Avenue near the Mark Clark Expressway. "Last Thanksgiving, a man was chasing a guy down the street shooting at him," Grasso said. "Drugs. That's our biggest thing -- drugs, drugs, drugs." The Russeldale Neighborhood Council hasn't met for years, and the semblance of a Crime Watch organization has fallen apart. A proposed U.S. Department of Justice target area for crime in North Charleston might not remove all of the violence in Russeldale and four other nearby neighborhoods. But it could provide $175,000 a year to start chipping away at the problem. North Charleston's 5-year-old Weed and Seed grant program at the lower end of the city will expire in September 2006. That program has provided more than $1 million in federal money to weed out crime and plant new seeds of hope in Accabee, Chicora-Cherokee, Union Heights and Liberty Hill. Now the city is turning to the U.S. attorney general in hopes that he will designate a new area for Weed and Seed funding. It includes the land south of Remount Road and along Rivers Avenue to Montague Avenue. Neighborhoods in the area are Charleston Farms, Singing Pines, Russeldale, Ferndale and Liberty Park/Highland Terrace. Grasso has become the Russeldale drug watch guru. The 43-year-old man has hidden in bushes and even made himself a blind from which to videotape the drug deals that have become commonplace. Some of the tapes aired on local television stations, and Grasso partnered with police to provide vacant houses for police stakeouts. He watches late into the night and calls police when he sees the loitering down at the "drug central" intersection on Rebecca Street. His motivation is his home and the nine houses he owns and rents out in the neighborhood. "This is my heart and my living," Grasso said. "I refuse to sit in my own house and watch people do drug deals." What the proposed Weed and Seed area needs now are dozens more involved citizens like Grasso, said North Charleston City Councilwoman Dorothy Williams, whose district includes Russeldale and Liberty Park/Highland Terrace. One of the Weed and Seed goals is to encourage residents to participate in community policing. The grant pays for overtime for police officers, so they can spend more time focusing on the area, getting to know residents and partnering with them to fight crime. The money would pay also for police surveillance equipment, drug abuse prevention classes, youth activities and programs aimed at forming strong, active civic clubs and Crime Watch organizations. "The primary purpose for Weed and Seed is to mobilize agencies, organizations and the police department to come together to develop a partnership and collaboration designed to fight crime," said North Charleston Weed and Seed Coordinator Carmen Walker. "It's so that drug dealers and persons who are involved in criminal activity will know that we're serious about improving the community." The first step is to create a strategic plan for the target area, and the city needs residents' input, said North Charleston Grants Coordinator Shannon Praete. Praete has called a community meeting for 3 p.m. Thursday in the first-floor conference room at City Hall, 4900 LaCross Road. Williams is asking residents to come out in force. "If you care about your neighborhood and really want some results, please come to the meeting," she said. "It is so desperately needed." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek